Brazilian Chief Calls for Tools to Help Save Land From 'white Man'

The chief of an Indian village in a remote area of Brazil yesterday unveiled the shopping list of basic equipment that could help him save a traditional way of life almost destroyed by agribusiness and forest clearance.

"We are fighting for the survival of our people and our language and culture," said Kuissi, of the Kisedje people, during a visit to the University of Manchester. "We can't say what the future is going to be like."

Kuissi and two colleagues have left Brazil for the first time to tell their story in Britain and Germany and explain that just £60,000 could make all the difference to the lives of their people.

The wishlist includes a tractor, a pick-up, a radio, solar equipment, an aluminium boat, an outboard motor and a computer. "We need the money to buy white man's tools to be able to recover the land from the white man's destruction."

The Kisedje were first contacted by white explorers in 1959 and moved to protected land in the Xingu Indian Park. But the people were not vaccinated and numbers dropped to 62. The population has now recovered to 378 people, all of them speaking their own language. They are also back on most of their homelands.

"We never forgot our village," Kuissi said. "We never imagined that the forest would be destroyed by the white people. We continued to be the owners of the land. We always returned there, to visit, to fetch forage and other material.

"But in the meantime the farmers took possession of our land and started to cut down the forest so they could breed cattle. Our deceased relatives are buried here. I had an elder brother who died here and is buried in our village. Even so the white people continued to destroy the forest ... so that they could breed cattle.

"We saw the destruction and this made us angry; we revolted against the farmers and started to destroy some of their things. We've been fighting with the farmers and the fishermen for a long time."

Now there is a new threat - a dam which will block one of the rivers running into the village. Modern equipment is needed to reclaim land wrecked by white farmers, according to Kuissi.

Planned projects include fish farming and honey production and a return to subsistence agriculture.

The village leaders have been hosted by the university's centre for Latin American cultural studies and the school of languages, linguistics and cultures with the help of funds from research councils.

Dan Everett, professor of phonetics and phonology, has been to the Kisedje homelands and will be back there over the next two years, taking turns with two research associates.

"Kuissi is so concerned with the threat to his people's culture and language that he now feels it necessary to begin developing long-term friendships and relationships with international partners," he said. He also plans to produce a Kisedje dictionary and grammar.

"We Indians don't want to be like white people," Kuissi added. "Just because we have a motor, a car, a radio, doesn't mean we want to be like white people. These are your things but today we are using [them] to help us in our tasks."